Chloë's 3 Things:

Hello,

Welcome to this week's newsletter!

This week, for me, has mainly been about kicking things off - so sitting down to write this, I wasn't sure if I had anything to share. Rarely are my thoughts in this newsletter fully formed - but I do try not to include those that are embryonic 😂.

What does that mean for the newsletter - well, this one might turn out to be a short read, and there's some super juicy stuff to come in the weeks ahead.

So here's what's been on my mind, that I can share, and that is worth sharing...

• Thing 1: Summer 😎 what's the plan?
• Thing 2: Life Admin ⏳ essential but infuriating
• Thing 3: Recommerce ♻️ lessons from this week's webinar

Thing 1: Summer 😎 what's the plan?

The time at the garage this week (see thing 2), and prepping for a team meeting, has given me lots of time to think about, and finalise our plans for the Summer.

So I thought I'd share a bit about it, to give you a hint at what I might be writing about as the summer weeks roll by...

Big themes

Remain:

• Sales
• Automation
• Delegation
• Simplification

Hardly surprising!

The Main Projects We're working on

• Getting the eCommerce Tech site out of beta - super exciting!
• New ecosystem-focused advertising packages for eCommerce Tech, with some big launch plans that maybe vaguely reminiscent of a crowdfunding - yes, there maybe early mover discounts
• Migrating our podcasts to a new host in order to bring our sponsorship offering into the modern age
• New sponsorship packages for the podcasts SO exciting, the new capabilities are going to be so much of a better fit for our customers.
• SEO - so much SEO!!
• A sneaky AI content project - that's all I'm saying today.
• A whole heap of fixes.
• LOTS of content pre-recording and pre planning ready for the autumn conference season.
• And... Trying to make sense of the LinkedIn algo shifts.

And there's even a week-by-week Gantt chart to keep me on track (and stop me from trying to do everything this week).

So get ready for some "Things" in the coming weeks about package construction, pricing theory, AI Content, SEO, ecosystem thinking, and a whole heap of eCommerce too.

📝 If there's anything on that little list that sparks your interest and you'd like to hear more on - please comment and I'll try to deliver.

Thing 2: Life Admin ⏳ essential but infuriating

Almost every other week this summer I have some kind of "mega-life-admin" to deal with.

• Car service
• Menopause Doctor
• Dentist
• Heat pump servicing

They are obviously essential and thus have to be done. But, man are they annoying. Mainly because:

😠 Have to happen during working hours

😠 "old world" industries that rely on F2F and phone calls (did I ever tell you I phone calls are my kryptonite?)

😠 You can't delegate them.

I find them so disruptive, which is one of the reasons they all happen in the summer, it's a time where I've got more diary space for disruption.

There might be an autism angle here...

Since diagnosis, I've been trying to better understand the things that really don't bring me joy.

It's probably one of the top 3 things I've benefited from since diagnosis - working out how to better deal with the 'bad' stuff.

I'm at my happiest and most productive when I'm having a "normal" day or a "normal" week - neither of which includes sitting at the garage for 2 hours waiting for someone to a video showing me the underside of my car.

I can totally handle changes to that - but it has knock on effects.

EG I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon, feeling almost a little (don't say it...) migrainy... so not even 80%. And I reckon at least 50% of the problem is having the garage disruption on Tuesday morning.

The other 50% is having only found out yesterday that the new kittens were arriving this week, and only having found out this morning that they are arriving today, and I have to pick them up this evening. It will be wonderful, and it's no one's fault - but the last minute disorganised nature does me no favours.

So what's the learning here?

What I'm now actively trying to work out is how I can minimise the negative impacts of them. I'm exploring ideas like:

• Can I delegate any of it? Next year could I get someone else to take the car for me? But that would involve me having to deal with a phone call to pay them... which isn't a good solution.
• How can I structure the rest of the day to minimise the impact - do I avoid all other meetings? Do I allocate no tasks at all? Or take the whole day off?
• Would loading them all into the same day help? (but logistical nightmare, it's not like they each have an online booking form)
• Should I change heat pump servicing company to one that isn't addicted to phone calls?

Now none of those are perfect solutions - fundamentally, I have to go to the dentist! But by better analysing what the issue is I can find a better solution.

For example - let's go back to the garage again. Perversely having to spend 80minutes driving to and from the garage, and over 2 hours sitting in the garage doing some work has turned out to be a less stressful scenario than having the car picked up and dropped off. Why? the latter involves at least 3 phone calls, and uncertain disruptions to the day as to when they turn up.

As always, with optimisation, the devil is in the details!

📝 I would love ANY recommendations for delegating, avoiding, making this easier! Bonus points if you have a phone call free idea.

Thing 3: Recommerce ♻️ lessons from this week's webinar

On Wednesday, I got to host a live panel exploring the opportunities for eCommerce stores and retailers AFTER the product leaves the warehouse for the first time.

So yes, we were chatting about all the "Rs":

🔁 Returns

🔁 Recommerce (aka second hand items)

🔁 Rental

And we had 3 of the most knowledgeable people I know providing all the insights - Zoe Rowswell , Ryan Atkins and John O'Brien

Catch the full replay here https://webinar.ecommerceexplored.com/talks/using-sustainability-for-growth-the-role-of-products-returns-and-recommerce/ it's ready to go!

My Key Takeaways...

The opportunity boils down to:

1. Profit - either cost saving, or money making
2. Customer satisfaction - leading to both retention AND acquisition
3. Waste reduction - less courier miles, less packaging, less going to landfill

Broadly I'd see it as...

Returns = fixing a process you're already running. Making it faster, triaging the stock that comes back in, find the more profitable way to handle it, shifting the mindset from "MINE!!!" to "what's the most pragmatic, profitable decision here?" - which might include NOT returning the item.

Recommerce = a whole new process that you need to know WHY you're doing it before you start, but that can have a whole heap of benefits.

BUT most businesses aren't set up to take advantage of it because responsibility falls through the cracks. The buying team aren't measured on returns, the warehouse doesn't see returns processing as part of the daily workflow, someone's obsessed with getting everything returned to the home country rather than processing in country, the only team who have the cost of returns on their P&L is finance!

If you're going to get returns or recommerce right, you'll need to put someone in charge of bringing the team together to deliver it.

If I was running a brand, what would I do right now?

Fix returns.

• Globally - manage it in country, you don't need to shipping everything back to you before sending it out again
• Build urgency into the system - the faster you can get it back on the shelves the more margin you'll get back (and avoid storage costs)
• Triage - put someone in charge of deciding what happens to the various items (back on as new stock, second hand listing, use for parts, sell on a marketplace, give to charity, recycle) and set up the systems to easily send it where it needs to go.
• Gather the data from it all - and use that to reduce future returns by selling the right product to the right customer in the first place.

Once you've fixed your already broken system - you'll be in a better place to start the new one.

AND I would seriously consider getting at least the buy-back part of your recommerce system in place for a much more interesting Black Friday deal.

📝 If you joined us for the webinar, or watched the replay - what were your takeaways?

That's it for this week!

I'd love to engage with your comments, so please do add your thoughts below.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Who am I and what do I do?

I've been in eCommerce for 20+ years, worked brand side, ran a marketing agency for 10 years, and now I run the media business Emetko Media.

We create content to help brands make better decisions on their path to success, and sell advertising and sponsorship to SaaS and agencies looking to get in front of our audience.

Key audience and content channels include:

• The eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast - apply here
• The Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast - apply to be a guest here
• The eCommerce Tech website - list your software
• The eCommerce Explored webinar series - guest applications
• And we also have newsletters
• if you're interested in advertising on any of this - let me know